Ch 18 Slime is Not an Option (Myxophbia 199)

Hours later, Buffy lay in the curve of his arm, her hand tracing patterns on his chest. The lamp on the desk cast a yellow glow over the room, the light not quite reaching all the dark corners but illuminating the room too brightly to invite sleep.

"It's not dark in here," she murmured. "I like it dark when I sleep..."

His chest shook gently, then he rolled to face her. "Is that your way of sayin' you want the one who can see in the dark to get up and turn off the light?"

"Kinda?"

"You only had to ask, love. You know I'd do anything for you." Buffy blinked as he stood up and walked to the desk. His backlit body with the muscled back and legs and tight ass temporarily distracted her from his words. However, when he'd killed the light and returned to the bed, she remembered why she'd been so surprised. Where those words, from most men, might have been whispered as a flowery declaration, Spike had simply stated what he saw as a fact.

As he settled next to her, pulling her close until she was comfortably snuggled into his side, she said, without trying to hide her amazement, "You would, wouldn't you?"

"That's how I am when I love... " Although his words and tone were casual, she could feel the tension in his body. Despite some mumbled phrases during the height of passion, he had never ever actually said he loved her.

He can't love me, can he? He's got no soul... and we just stopped being enemies last week... She remembered what he'd said about how he'd always grown hard when they were fighting, and blushed to remember how often she'd thought about how it felt to be pressed up against him, even when she was holding a stake to his chest.

As she made no response, she felt him stiffen a little more and his arms loosened just a bit. She unconsciously tightened the arm she'd been resting across his body, holding him in place. She lifted one leg and wrapped it around his thigh, pinning him to the bed.

"Spike... I... " She stopped, not sure what she wanted to say, but very conscious that the wrong words could shatter whatever was growing between them.

As though he could read her mind, he relaxed and began to stroke the arm holding him so tightly. "Wasn't asking for anything, Buffy. I know it's too soon for... know I've got to prove myself, got to earn..." He brushed light kisses across her face. "Not expecting anything from you, other than you allow me to be in your life."

"You are in my life. How could you doubt it?" She waved her arm to encompass their entwined naked bodies. "Do you think I just... with anybody?" Buffy pushed away thoughts of Parker and their one-night stand. It's not like the one-night thing was my idea. Then she remembered Spike's words to her when he'd had the Gem of Ammara and she stiffened. "Do you?"

"No, love. No. Didn't mean that at all. I know I was a wanker when that git brushed you off. But, it was because I was so jealous I couldn't see straight. Arse was too stupid to know what a gift he'd been given. He'd had what I wanted and there he was – treating you like... Trust me, Buffy, if you hadn't taken that ring off my finger, he would have been my first meal."

Somewhat mollified, she sniffed and put her head back down on his chest. "Okay, then." Her head snapped back up. "Not okay that you eat him!"

He laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I know." He nuzzled her hair and purred, "Is it okay if I scare the piss out of him sometime? Put the fear of Spike into him?"

Buffy shrugged. "Sure. Have fun. I already hit him on the head a couple times, though. Maybe we should move on..."

"That's my girl." He tightened his arms around her and squeezed.

"Your girl is sleepy," she replied, stifling a yawn.

"Then she should sleep." He pulled the covers up over their bodies and settled down for a night of marveling at where he was and who was sharing the bed with him.


~~~~~~~

When Buffy woke up, Spike was clearly deep into his normal daytime sleep. She extricated herself from his arms and stood up, smiling at the way they seemed to automatically tighten when she first moved. She grabbed her robe and clothes and ran down the hall to shower. When she returned, Spike was sitting up, holding the sheet to his chest and glaring at Willow who was standing in the middle of the room hyperventilating.

Buffy walked up to her and touched her shoulder, bringing an "eep!" and a jump.

"Sorry, Will. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You... he..." Willow took a calming breath, still staring at Buffy's bed. "Spike is in your bed. Spike is naked in your bed."

"How do you know I'm naked, Red? Did you peek? Shame on you!"

Willow turned her eyes to Buffy. "I didn't peek, I swear! I just... "

Giving Spike a glare that did nothing to stop his laughter, Buffy patted Willow on the shoulder. "Don't pay any attention to him. He's just trying to embarrass you."

"Well, it's working," Willow grumbled. "Consider me embarrassed."

"Guess getting up to put my pants on wouldn't be a good idea then," Spike said, still grinning. He fell back onto the pillow and crossed his arms behind his head.

"Not unless you want to be wearing warts for the next couple of days," Willow threatened, her initial shock at finding a naked vampire in her roommate's bed wearing off. Buffy whispered in her ear, so low that even Spike couldn't make it out. Willow nodded. "Well, okay. But just because you asked. Not because I don't think he deserves it." She turned and pointed at Spike. "I'm going to go take a shower. You'd better have pants on when I get back, mister!"

They watched Willow leave, then Buffy approached the bed, her head down. He took her hand and pulled her closer. "What's this, then?" he asked. "Having second thoughts?"

"Not really. I'm just realizing how not well some people are going to take this." She sighed. "I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

He frowned. "Your watcher knows – not that he's happy 'bout it – your best friend knows. Who else, besides your mum," he paused and shuddered theatrically, "matters? Were you maybe planning to call the big poof and share?"

Buffy's wide eyes and open mouth told him she'd never even thought about Angel's possible reaction. She moaned. "Oh my God. I forgot about Angel. He's going to totally wig." She stared at Spike. "He's going to kill you!"

"He's going to want to kill me," Spike agreed. "Might not be all that easy..."

"How can you be so casual about this?" Buffy's voice was climbing higher. "How could I forget about Angel? What's wrong with me?"

Spike cocked his head at her. "Maybe I'm just that much better than he is?" he said, trying for a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. When she didn't respond, he tried again. "Or maybe," he tugged her closer again, "maybe you've moved on."

"Well duh!" she said, throwing up her hands and turning away, completely missing the surprise and awe on his face. "That's not the point. It's who I've moved on to that's going to be the problem." She turned back around and peered at Spike through the hair that had fallen in front of her face. "He hates you, you know."

"Feelin's mutual, pet. Trust me." Spike threw the sheet back and reached for his pants. "Old grandpa isn't one of my favorite relatives, either."

"Okay. So we just have to make sure nobody tells him. If he doesn't know, he can't get all fangy about it."

Willow came through the door just as Spike finished zipping his jeans closed.

"Who can't get all... oh! Angel. Oh yeah, fangy, stakey, flamey—"

"Not if he doesn't know," Buffy said quickly. "If we don't tell him..."

Willow nodded vigorously. "That's right. Giles doesn't like to talk to him, I don't talk to him, you don't... You don't, do you?" Buffy shook her head. "Okay, then we're all good. None of us are going to tell him. Xander hates him, so he's not going to tell... "

Buffy cleared her throat. "I was kinda, sorta thinking that we'd put off telling Xander for a while. You know, give him some time to get used to seeing Spike with me instead of making some big announcement that—"

"That would make him wig," Willow finished for her. "You're right. He's going to be as bad as Angel – just not as scary." She looked at Spike apologetically. "He's probably going to want to stake you, though. You'll have to be careful."

"Not quite the pushover I was a few days ago," Spike said as he pulled on his tee-shirt.

"And on that cheery note..." Willow watched as he got back into Buffy's bed and pulled the sheets over his head. She raised her eyebrows at Buffy, who shrugged.

"It's not like he can go out now," she said, making an apologetic face. She picked up her notebooks and waited while Willow put on shoes and got her own supplies for class. With a last look at the immobile lump in Buffy's bed, they left the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I am never going to get this off my coat!" Spike looked down at the body of the chaos demon he'd just killed and snarled. "I wish I could kill the wanker all over again." He glanced up at Buffy who was standing conspicuously far away. "What the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Staying away from you. You're all... slimy. And you smell... And did I mention slimy?"

"Got this way protecting you. Or have you forgotten that already?"

"You weren't protecting me," she sniffed. "I could have handled him just fine. I just didn't want to get slime all over my new blouse and shoes."

"Point is, pet..." His voice sounded suspiciously like a snarl. "I ruined my clothes trying to save yours. And now you're actin' like you don't want to be seen with me."

Just then a young couple walked past them, wrinkling their noses and gagging. The girl gave Buffy a sympathetic look as they stepped into the street to avoid getting close to Spike, who was standing in the middle of the sidewalk with slime dripping down his face and off his coat.

Without speaking, Buffy turned and began walking towards Giles' apartment complex. She ignored the snarling vampire trailing her through Sunnydale, giving sunny smiles to anyone who seemed inclined to mention the slimy, smelly, angry-looking man behind her.

She entered the apartment and quickly turned to block the door. "Backyard, hose, now," she said firmly, pointing to the end of the apartment block. Still snarling and swearing in several languages, Spike obediently went around to the back of the building, kicking several lawn chairs out of his way as he did so. Buffy watched out the upstairs window as he hung his coat over one of the abused chairs and sprayed it down with the hose. He then put his head under the hose and washed the slime out of his hair and off his face, removing the gel in his hair at the same time. She smiled as the familiar curls began to sprout on his head, then ran downstairs to let him in.

It was only then that she noticed Heloise standing in the kitchen and raised her eyebrows at Giles. He cleared his throat and said too quietly for the curious woman to hear, "It seems only fair that I, too, be permitted to trust someone you don't."

Before Buffy could answer, Spike slipped up behind her and smirked at Giles. "At least you know this vampire isn't going to lose his leash and kill your ladyfriend."

Giles' jaw tightened at the mention of Jenny, then he exhaled and nodded. "Point taken."

Heloise had approached the group, staring back and forth between Spike's wet head and the wet leather coat he'd left hanging by the door.

"Is it raining again?"

"No," Buffy responded cheerfully. "Spike just had a little run-in with a Chaos demon and he got slimed."

Heloise ran for her notebook. "Chaos demon? I don't have that one. What can you tell me about them?"

"They're gross and disgusting and I didn't want one sliming on my good clothes," Buffy said, shuddering. Before anyone could explain more, Xander and Anya entered and were introduced to Heloise. Giles referred to her as his "friend from the university" to snickers from Spike, who Buffy then elbowed in the ribs.

Heloise's "tsk" went almost unnoticed as Willow and Tara came in, sparking another round of introductions. As soon as everyone had sorted out who was meeting whom for the first time, and what the various relationships were, Heloise focused back on the Chaos demon question and Buffy's response.

"So, the Slayer is a bit myxophobic, and she allowed her boyfriend to take the brunt of an attack so as to avoid damage to her clothes?" She fixed Buffy with a disapproving frown. "I know that you and... Spike... are not what I first took you for, but even so, the way you treat him is shameful. All that physical abuse... I don't know why he stands for it."

Before Buffy could respond with anything testy, Spike rested his hands on her shoulders and spoke over her head.

"I'm a vampire, luv. Much as I appreciate your concern for my well-being, the Slayer and I have been physically abusing each other on pretty equal terms for a long time. We can take it. And, for me, that's part of her charm. Trust me when I tell you the rewards are worth every bloody punch."

Heloise looked at Giles for support, but he just shook his head. "I really don't want to know, and neither do you." He took her arm and steered her away from Spike and Buffy, who were having an animated, whispered conversation. Spike hadn't removed his hands from Buffy's shoulders yet, and she was carrying on her part of the conversation looking back at him over her shoulder. Neither of them had noticed the way Xander was staring in disbelief.

He was uncharacteristically silent for the rest of the evening, spending much of the time watching Buffy and Spike as they and Giles brought everyone up to speed on the Initiative and what was likely to happen to it.

"Do you think they're going to release all the demons and vamps?" Willow asked, patting Tara's hand absently when she gasped at the thought.

Xander's eyes were now darting back and forth between both Willow and Tara, and Spike and Buffy, all of whom seemed to him to be sitting unnecessarily close together and doing more touching than was normal. Finally he blurted out, "Willow? Have you done another spell?"

She blushed and moved even closer to the girl she'd introduced as her new Wicca friend. "Do you mean... them?" She gestured to Spike and Buffy, now arguing about what to do if the Army decided to just empty the cells and turn everything in them loose in Sunnydale.

"Well, yeah. We can start with them. What the hell is going on? And why did the Prof call Spike Buffy's boyfriend?"

Buffy spoke up, shrugging uncomfortably. "When she first met us, she just assumed he was... with me. We were too busy just then to tell her any different."

"That was then. This is now. Tell her different!"

"Well...."

"Well? There is no well. There will be no welling here. Just tell her!"

"Xander, I really wanted to give you some time to get used to this, but...."

Xander appealed to Giles. "G-man, do you hear this? You're not going to allow it, right?"

Giles cleared his throat. "I believe Buffy is old enough to do without my permission when it comes to whom she is... seeing."

"Have you forgotten what her last vampire boyfriend did to you? Because I haven't."

"Xander, Spike isn't like Angelus. He's not...."

"Not soulless? 'cause I'm pretty sure he is. Last time I checked he was trying to kill us all."

"I know it seems kinda sudden, but we—"

Buffy was becoming visibly upset the longer Xander talked, and Spike finally stepped in. "What Buffy does and who she does it with is her business. She doesn't need your permission or anyone else's. Get over it."

Xander looked around at Giles, Willow, Tara and Heloise, seeing that none of them looked shocked or surprised.

"So, I'm the last to know, then?"

"You are," Spike said. "And with good reason, you judgmental git. No wonder she was afraid to tell you."

"No," Xander said, with surprising calm. "No, I'll bet I'm not the last to know. C'mon, Anya. I've got a call to make."